Alain’s lips curled. Fang glinted. “Do it,” he whispered.
I didn't need the ribbons inside my stomach to tell me not to. I was lashing out. Angry at Papa. Angry at Alain. Angry at the world.
Never show fear.
“I will join when I am ready,” I said steadily. “Four days, Alain. Four. Days. Do you think I was born yesterday? Papa has more restraint than this.”
His hand flexed on my throat, but not enough to cut off air; just a warning that he was still there.
“You are young and impetuous, Éliane. Stubborn and recalcitrant. But it is the Mhachkay your father does not trust.” Not me.
Oh, how those words warmed me.
And how they infuriated Ediz.
The shifter roared, his head thrown back to the moon. Claws jutted out of the ends of his curled fingers, his jaw unhinged on a loud crack, teeth lengthened, drool pooled in his mouth and then spilt over slavering lips onto the tiles. His nose elongated, his ears disappeared, scales crested the top of his head as fur sprouted along massive arms. He rose on hind legs that bent backwards, and then landed on all fours with a chuffing sound.
The ground shook.
And then he was running towards Alain, who was pushing me away by the hand that had held my throat. I spun and landed hard on my arse, the severed foot flying off in a different direction, the stake I’d had at Alain’s chest landing out of my reach, as well. But the Kilij was in my grip as I sprang to my feet and watched Alain and Ediz connect.
The sound of snarls and hisses and roars and screams filled the air, along with the taint of blood.
I raced forward, only to be hauled back by a firm grip.
“Stay out of it,” Alessandra growled in my ear, her inch long painted nails digging into my skin.
“Let me go,” I snarled, the ribbons twisting and turning and making me feel sick.
“This is a battle you are ill equipped for, Nosferatin,” she hissed.
I reached for my second stake and brought it down hard into her thigh. Her fangs pressed against my neck. My elbow crunched into her nose. Blood splattered the tiles beneath our feet; hers and mine.
And then she was standing before me, incorporeal and incensed. Her body collapsing at my back as I stared at her Dream Walking form. My Light slowly ebbing from the courtyard.
“Don’t ever underestimate me again, vampire,” I all but yelled.
She flashed fang and tested the boundary of the Light bubble I’d placed her in. It held. But I’d pay for it later. One Dream Walking vampire and I would be jelly on legs.
My eyes scanned the courtyard. No other Erbörü had crawled out of the shadows. Strange, but then Ediz was not your average shifter. Even watching him now against one of Papa’s most powerful and accomplished vampires, he appeared to be in several places at once.
Tiredness swamped me, but I locked my knees, dipped my chin, and started toward the mauling men.
Only to come up short when the smell of ozone and burnt peaches hit the air.
I spun around and spotted a fairy, reaching down to pick up the severed foot. He was dressed in rich velvets and bright silks, his arms adorned with bejewelled bracelets, his hair a silver grey as it swirled around his head. Piercing green eyes met mine, a wicked curve of his lips, the birdlike tilt of his head, a tip of an imaginary hat, and then he winked out of sight.
Motherfucker! Prince Terrin of Ljósálfar. And if I hadn’t have been distracted, hadn’t have been separated from the fairy’s severed foot, I could have had him.
I could have had a way to get to Álfheimr.
Anger like I had never felt before welled up inside me. Light swelled. My back arched, my head tipped up to the moon, and I screamed my rage to the stars. Light burst from my body and shattered all those who stood close enough. Scoured the courtyard of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque until all that remained were scattered bodies and piles of dirt pressed up against pitted grey-blue walls.
My shoulders shook as my chin came down and my breaths began to even out.
And those ribbons, those confusing, enthralling, teasing ribbons, twisted and turned and flipped and flopped inside until I was sure there was nothing else left of me but knots.
4
Is There Going To Be A Problem?
“You need to join, Ellie,” Alain said softly from where he tended Alessandra on the ground. Ediz watched on warily from several feet away, naked as the day he was born and magnificent at it, but a truce of sorts had been called due to my tantrum.
It didn’t help, either, that Alain was calling me by my nickname, as if he was attempting to keep the unstable Nosferatin calm.
I ignored his statement; I couldn’t face the truth of it right now. Instead, I looked down at Alessandra’s broken legs; stiletto heels and a Light tornado are not a healthy or practical combination.
“How is she?” I asked.
Alessandra glared at me and then sucked in an unnecessary breath of air as Alain straightened a particularly nasty looking fracture.
“She’ll heal,” he said. “But she needs blood.”
I should have offered mine; it would have been the right thing to do. Instead, I looked toward Ediz. He nodded his head at me, as if he could read my mind, and then sauntered away into the shadows.
“Where’s he going?” Alain demanded, half standing as if to go after him.
“Getting Alessandra blood,” I replied calmly. I didn't feel calm. Alain was right. I was unstable.
I needed to join before I blew this world apart.
“Where is he, Éliane?” Alain said softly, stunning me out of my dark musings. “Where is your brother?”
“Not here,” I replied tiredly.
Alain stood up and turned to face me; concern and something more intimate warmed his features. I gave him my back.
“Éliane,” he said. “Is Luc in Álfheimr?”
Alain had seen the fairy, too, then. It wasn't hard to put it all together, and Alain Dupont was by no means unintelligent. Had Lucien been here in Istanbul, he would have appeared when my Light flared. The fact that Papa - or Mama maybe - couldn’t feel Luc’s own Light right now meant that he was either successfully joined with a kindred vampire or out of range. Add in the fact that Hakan wasn’t here either, backing up his shifter minion, and anyone could draw the dots.
“Yes,” I said.
Alain sighed; an entirely redundant action for a vampire to make. He placed his hands on his hips and stared at the ground. Alessandra for her part had shut her eyes, gone preternaturally still; vampire still. Healing what she could without blood.
“His signature vanished not long after you left the council chamber,” Alain advised.
That made sense because Luc disappeared from wherever Hakan kept him within hours of us arriving in Turkey. Whatever Darkness was consuming him, my brother had decided he couldn’t wait for Hakan and me to save him. Hakan had sensed his departure, Goddess alone knows how, but one second he’d been kissing down my neck, his hands everywhere, the next he’d told me to “remain in the house” and then disappeared into thin air.
I’d stayed there for exactly one day. And then I’d wandered Istanbul’s narrow streets in search of them. It had become apparent, pretty damn fast, that neither of them was still in the city. Throw in the tingling presence of ozone and burnt peaches here and there, and I’d concluded that Hakan had followed Luc into Faerie.
But I couldn’t find a portal to follow them.
“Four days,” I said. “They’ve been gone for four days.”
“The Mhachkay went after Lucien?” Alain asked. I nodded. “And what have you been doing, Éliane?”
He knew me too well.
“Hunting fairies.”
“The severed foot.” He’d seen that, too, then.
I didn’t say anything in reply. What was there to say? Alain had seen me do many strange things over the years: fight Hyrða in the arena; torture ghouls for information; bring a six-hundred-year-old vampire to his knees with
a well-placed boot to the groin. What’s the amputation of a foot compared to any of that?
“You could have called for help,” Alain said and then huffed out an amused breath of air. “Of course you wouldn’t call for help. How remiss of me to suggest it.”
“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you, Dupont,” I said.
“Éliane, the time for going it alone has passed.” He was right. “If Lucien has been in Álfheimr for four days and the Mhachkay has vanished in his wake then they are both undoubtedly in trouble.”
Thinking of Hakan being in trouble seemed wrong somehow. I barely knew the guy, but he appeared so sure of himself, so confident and powerful. So mysterious in Mhachkay ways.
“For only a Mhachkay can walk between worlds.” There was more to the Mhachkay vampires than I knew. I wondered if Alain knew what that more was from my father.
I went to ask him when Ediz appeared in the corner of the courtyard, the shadows parting as if to let him through. He was dressed again and had his hand on the nape of a young human male. The human looked neither glazed - not that a shifter can glaze - nor coerced. He walked confidently toward the two vampires in the centre of the courtyard, his eyes trailing over both their bodies, coming to rest on Alessandra.
Alain stepped in front of the fallen vampire, fangs bared, a hiss barely audible.
“He is willing,” Ediz snarled and then spat on the ground in disgust. Clearly, Ediz didn't like the idea of feeding a vampire.
There were vampires in Istanbul; I’d seen them. I hadn’t had to hunt any rogues as yet, but I’d noted the few transient vampires who’d walked under the light of the moon. They’d noted me too and kept a wide berth.
Nosferatin are the wannabe rogue vampires’ bogeymen. I’d twirled my stake and smiled a toothy smile and walked on past them.
But if vampires were here, so were vampire groupies. Even if “There is no Iunctio in Istanbul.”
The world was a complicated place now. The lines that had been drawn in the sand of my father’s time were smudged. Nothing was so much as hidden from human eyes as it was outrightly despised by them.
The human male held out his wrist to Alain, a desperate, hungry look on his face.
“Alessandra?” Alain called, not taking his eyes off both Ediz and the male.
“He will do,” she said, sounding for all intents and purposes as if a queen granting favours.
Alain stood aside and let the human approach Alessandra. “Wrist or neck?” the guy asked a little too eagerly.
“You are a feisty one,” Alessandra purred, red rimming her eyes as she glazed him. The male’s face slackened and Alessandra smiled. “But I prefer my dinner not to talk back.”
I turned away when her fangs bit into flesh. I wasn't squirmy; I’d seen my fair share of blood meals. But Alessandra gave me the creeps.
Ediz walked up to my side; Alain stiffening.
“Are they staying?” the shifter said on a snarl.
I tapped my fingernails on the stakes at my hips and smiled. Ediz purred. I’d never heard him purr before. I looked into his dark green eyes, but there was no hint of Erbörü to be seen in him now.
“Have you heard from Hakan?” I asked instead of answering him.
Ediz didn't reply.
“Four days, Ediz,” I said.
“It is nothing.”
“Four days in Álfheimr.”
“I have my orders.” And I was betting they had nothing to do with allowing me to waltz through a portal and go after his master.
“My brother is in trouble.”
“He has been in trouble since we first met him,” the shapeshifter said.
“He is my brother.”
“And Bey Bahar is my Lord. I will not disobey him.”
“He isn’t my Lord,” I said and turned to Alain. “Can you get us to a portal?”
“Of course,” he replied, a little too silkily for my liking. He didn't taunt Ediz as such, but the inference was definitely there.
“Where’s the closest still open to Ljósálfar?” I asked.
“London.”
I let out a slow breath of air. London it was, then.
My eyes met Ediz’s. They shone an eerie green rimmed with a ruby red. His pupils slightly lengthened like a lizard. Secondary eyelids closing from bottom to top like a nictitating membrane. What exactly were Erbörü? Other than insanely strong, wickedly dangerous, and loyal to their masters.
“Is there going to be a problem?” I demanded.
Ediz smiled. “Is it any wonder the Bey hungers for you so?”
That taunt was well aimed because Alain’s growl only made Ediz laugh.
Ediz laughing, however, was not something I wished to see ever again.
Whatever Erbörü were, they were frightening.
Glad he was on my side.
5
Now, What The Hell Did That Mean?
Of course, as soon as we arrived at Istanbul Atatürk Airport Ediz’s support was lost again.
“You cannot leave,” the Erbörü said. “You are safe in Istanbul.”
My safety wasn’t the issue, but I’d play along for now. Ediz was a hairbreadth away from snapping.
“There are vampires, ghouls, shapeshifters and the odd fairy here,” I said. “How is it safer than anywhere else in the world?”
“There is no Iunctio.” That seemed to be an Istanbul motto.
“You do realise that I am the daughter of the Champion?” I asked mildly. “The daughter of the Prophesied?”
“There is no Iunctio here,” he repeated. Stubborn, another character trait I could add to fearsome, lethal, and batshit crazy.
“The more you say it, the more chance of a councillor turning up,” I teased.
Ediz didn’t get the joke.
“They will stay away from Turkey.”
He seemed very sure of that fact. I looked out over the runway, toward the lights of Istanbul. It had obviously had its fair share of human vigilante upheaval post the vampires coming out of the shadows. It may not have a resident Nosferatin - or, at least, none I’d felt since arriving here - but it did have Nosferatu in enough numbers to be noticeable.
Why then did it not have an Iunctio presence?
Because of the Mhachkay?
Again, I wished I was privy to more of Papa’s history with this secretive sect. Was it a sect? Was there more than just Hakan Bahar in Istanbul?
“Why?” I asked the shifter, sick of not knowing enough.
“They will stay away from Turkey,” was all I got back in reply.
Alain watched on from the steps of Papa’s private jet. Alessandra already inside, recovered I was sure from both injury and insult, but playing up the wounded, superior vampire act for all it was worth. Alain’s crisp blue eyes met mine, a question there. I was surprised he hadn’t bullied his way in between Ediz and me yet.
I turned my attention back on the Erbörü.
“I’m going after them, Ediz,” I said. “You may not like it. You may want to stop me. But you will fail.” I took a step towards him, remnants of using too much Light making the world dim at the corner of my eyes. I blinked the sensation away and concentrated on the threat before me. “You know who I am. You know what I’m capable of. Don't test me. I have beaten more dangerous predators than you before.”
His slow smile was one of appreciation, but then a glint of something feral and wild flared in his green eyes. I was reaching for the Kilij before he’d made a move, but the damn curved blade was not my standard weapon of choice. The slight hesitation of the sword slipping free of the scabbard was enough for Ediz to strike.
And then Alain was there. Cyan flashing in his eyes, fangs down, growl thrumming in his chest. Both men poised to pounce, Sanguis Vitam swirling in the air mixing with shapeshifter magic. It pushed against my Light shield, it thrummed out around us as if a bubble of power waiting to explode.
Volatile. That’s what the Erbörü were. A hair trigger temper barely in control of a killing mac
hine on steroids. Alain’s cool professionalism seemed dwarfed by that kind of instability. I wondered if Hakan’s absence was making Ediz more unbalanced. I’d seen the power Hakan had called on to prevent Ediz from killing my friend Gigi. The strength that was required to call off an Erbörü on the hunt. Ediz had fought Alain already tonight but had been able to halt his attack when the fairy appeared to take back the severed foot. Clearly, that fight had not been an Erbörü hunt, such as the one he undertook with Georgia.
In an ideal world, heading into Álfheimr, I would have taken Georgia’s hunting skills over Alessandra’s any day. But as it looked like I couldn't get rid of Ediz, Gigi was out. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t use his natural born instincts to my advantage.
I just had to convince him it was worth hunting in Faerie.
I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket and dialled Georgia’s number. She answered immediately. Day or night, Georgia was always ready for a challenge; I constantly challenged my friend. I also wasn't sure the woman ever slept.
“El,” she purred down the line making Alain stiffen and Ediz growl. Oh, the joys of playing with supernaturals. “Mmm,” she said, making a noisy show of licking her lips. “Sounds like you’ve got your pet lizard with you. How nice.”
Ediz’s growl became a hiss much to his embarrassment, I think.
“What’s the situation in Álfheimr?” I asked.
Georgia was the Dark Fey King’s Hundr, or “hound.” She had an agreement with him which she would never admit was more of a friendship than an accord. But when Aliath called, Gigi came running. Well, stomping, hissing and spitting, but she didn’t delay. I was never really sure if she’d had a fling with him; the way he looked at my friend with a mixture of possession, intrigue and captivation. The Fey are curious by nature, but Aliath’s continued relationship with the Nothus was one that challenged all previous notions of Fey trust. Fairies don’t trust easily. But Aliath, I think, trusted Georgia.
Blood Entwined (Blood Enchanted, Book 2): A Vampire Hunter Paranormal Romance Series Page 3